If you asked around about the common complaints of the LC tier, you'd soon find that "It's all the same few Pokemon" is a common one. In high-level play, most teams are strikingly similar, and while most players try and use something different to catch the metagame off-guard, they still fill the rest of their teamslots by falling back on the same tried and true face-wreckers such as Murkrow, Misdreavus, and Mienfoo. This is for a good reason, as Little Cup is much like NU in that it houses every Pokemon that isn't in another tier, and with winners such as Sunkern and Magikarp lurking in the depths of LC, it's no wonder why we prefer Snover and Chinchou over them.

Our goal:

That said, we pass up good Pokemon for the same reason: we're too busy using the awesome stuff. What we hope to accomplish with this project is to bring some freshness into this metagame by finding some unique and useful sets and Pokemon in the LC metagame. We also want to answer a few questions. Why was this Pokemon passed over before? What gives them their useful niche in the metagame?

Rules:

All teams must use at least one Dark Horse Pokemon. This is defined as any Pokemon below the top 50 Pokemon as seen in the latest usage statistics.

You only need to have one Dark Horse on your team, but you can use more! The rest of your team can be whatever you want, and you can even have more than one Dark Horse if you'd like!

You must post your fresh alt and your Pokemon being tested along with its set. If you ladder before registering in this thread, you will be disqualified from reaching the Hall of Fame.

You are allowed to switch Pokemon throughout the challenge, but you must pick a new alt.

Registration Form:

When signing up for this challenge, please use the following registration form:

We will obviously need your PS! alt name that you will be using for this challenge to identify you. Remember, this must be a fresh alt! Next, you will need to give the Pokemon you are using as your Dark Horse for this month. Giving frequent updates on your ladder standing helps us see how you are doing, so please do your best to keep that updated! Finally, post the set you are using below the other stuff, and you are good to go!

Deadline: Each round of Dark Horse will end at the last day of each month at 11:59 PM EST. If there are any two or more users using the same Pokemon, a ladder screenshot will be taken to determine who earns the Hall of Fame spot!

Should you be skilled enough to reach 1950 ACRE with a deviation lower than 75 on the ladder, then you shall be rewarded with a spot in the LC Dark Horse Hall of Fame! Given the fearsome strength of the ladder, this is a moderately impressive task indeed! Jokes aside, once you've become eligible to enter the Hall of Fame, fill out and post the following form:

Along with this, if you have any replays, logs, or anything else you'd like to share, please do so! The whole point of this is to discover something new, so if you've got something good, we'd love to hear about it. Once you've filled out the form and I've verified your eligibility, you'll be inducted...almost!

Only one person can be inducted into the Hall of Fame per Pokemon. This means that if someone else is using the same Pokemon you are, you must outladder them. For example, if someone else was using my pro Magikarp set, I would have to both meet the requirements of the challenge and be higher on the ladder than my competitior(s) when the screenshot is taken. This means that you are competing against the other challengers rather than just the mediocre ladder, which makes this challenge both harder and more satisfying. Better get started if you want to be the one at the top of the ladder! Don't worry, you can still enter the Hall of Fame with more than one Pokemon.

By the way, please VM me any questions you have rather than clutter the thread with them. Good luck!

Moderator

Actually, we've decided to make this just a little harder, and so we're changing the definition of Dark Horse Pokemon. Instead of a Pokemon being below the top 40, it now needs to be below the top 50. If you had signed up for a Pokemon in between those, you'll have to change it, sorry.

Zigzagoon was total shit and I basically used it as fodder every match. Winning 5v6 is still really easy though as long as you have a decent core. Also, having the potential of a BD sweep in your back pocket is fun, and made quite a few games easier than they would have been. It really is bad though.

Seems like it... I just carried that Koffing to rank 1 on ladder even tho the deviation is still high. Even if he wasn't as good as the poke he replaced he did his job quite well. the big problem I see with the lower ranked pokemons is that they cant handle the big threats at all either that or their niche is very obscure... I'll try to get the deviation below 75 but right now i'm going to enjoy the spot.

That's actually a bug with your rating; your actual rating is about 1920 right now. Your ACRE is supposed to be your Glicko2 - 1.4 * deviation, but currently your deviation is added. It'll fix itself the next time you hit a decay cycle (15th match/3rd day).

ill probably start laddering on the weekend. I actually have confidence it Growlithe thanks to intimidate.

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Please lemme know how it works out, i want an excuse to use GRowlithe.

As an update; I havent had much time to ladder lately but grimer is still doing an awesome job at nearly hard countering mienfoo. Every now and again it does some other cool stuff, like kill missy, but i think its a mix of luck and people not really knowing what a grimer is, versus actually being good at things like that. still. Countering mienfoo.

Totally fucked up and used my alt with a different team. Same Mon, same team, just new name is goign to be somthing else. Will let you know when i actually win a match with it. wIll update my orginal in